How now, wit! whither wander you?

A Brief Update

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:15:53 GMT

So, things have been going fairly well with Josh. Well, about as well as can be expected. Massive amounts of awkward are still present when we spend more than a couple hours together, but hopefully that will fade with time. If not, oh well.

I went to visit my friend Christian down in Westminster yesterday and went out with his mom, some of his mom's friends, his mom's boyfriend, and part of said boyfriend's family for the best Korean food I've ever had. After four hours of straight eating, trading dirty jokes with Christian and making fun of Aiden (the most adorable 4-yr old I've ever seen), I was about ready to explode. Good times.

I also retrieved 2 more seasons of Red vs. Blue from Christian, so I anticipate spending much of the rest of my weekend watching that (and other movies), drinking tea, and folding paper cranes. Yeah, I'm kind of boring.

I'm moved back into the dorms now, which is kind of nice. I still haven't moved quite all of the crap from my car to my room, though. Ah well. I did actually plug my fridge in today, though, and now it has food in it! ....Well, all it actually has in it right now is juice and milk, but close enough.

Tomorrow I think I can go pick up my books, and then Monday in vaccination day! I need to get the last round of my HPV and Hep A vaccines. Huzzah.

British
[x] You drink a lot of tea.
[x] You know what a brolly is.
[ ] Deal or No Deal has taken over your life.
[ ] You wanted Ben to win X Factor.
[x] You use the word "bugger" or the phrase "bloody hell."
[x] Fish and Chips are yummy.
[x] You can eat a Full English Breakfast.
[ ] You dislike emos almost as much as you dislike chavs.
[x] It's football...not soccer.
Total: 6

Australian
[ ] You wear flip flops all year.
[ ] You call flipflops thongs not flip flops.
[ ] You love a backyard barbie.
[x] You know a barbie is not a doll.
[ ] You love the beach.
[ ] Sometimes you swear without realizing.
[x] You're a sports fanatic.
[ ] You are tanned.
[ ] You're a bit of a bogan.
[x] You have an Australian something.
Total: 3

Italian
[ ] The Sopranos is a great show.
[ ] Your last name ends in a vowel. (Y is sometimes a vowel!)
[ ] Your grandmother makes her own sauces.
[x] You know how a real meatball tastes.
[ ] You know Italian songs.
[ ] You have dark hair and dark eye color.
[ ] You speak some Italian.
[x] You are under 5'10''
[ ] You know what a italian horn is
[ ] Pizza/spaghetti is the best food in the world!
[x] You talk with your hands.
Total: 3

Spanish
[ ] You say member instead of Remember.
[ ] You speak Spanish or some.
[x] You like tacos.
[ ] YoU TyPe lIkE ThIs On Da CoMpUtEr.
[ ] You are dark skinned.
[ ] You know what a Puta is.
[ ] You talk fast occasionally.
[x] You have had highlights or have dyed your hair.
[ ] You know what platanos are.
Total: 2

Russian
[ ] You say villian as: Vee-lon.
[x] You get short tempered.
[ ] You know of somebody named Natasha.
[ ] You get cold easily.
[ ] Rain is fun for you.
[ ] You get into contests all the time.
[x] You can easily make do with the cold weather.
Total: 2

Irish
[ ] You think beer is the best.
[ ] You have a bad temper.
[ ] Your last name starts with a Mc, Murph, O', Fitz or ends with a ley, on, un, an, in, ry, ly, y.
[x] You have blue or green eyes.
[x] You like the color green.
[ ] You have been to a St. Patty's Day party.
[ ] You have a family member from Ireland.
[x] You have blonde hair.(I used to be HELLA blonde)
[x] You have/had freckles.
[ ] Your family get togethers always include drinking and singing.
Total: 4

African American
[ ] You say nigga/nukka casually
[ ] You have nappy hair.
[ ] You like rap.
[ ] You know how to shoot a gun.
[ ] You think President George Walker Bush is racist.(I prefer to just not think about him)
[ ] You like chicken.
[ ] You like watermelon.
[ ] You can dance.
[ ] You can 'sing' gospel.
Total: 0

Asian
[ ] You have slanty/small eyes.
[x] You like rice a lot.
[ ] You are good at math.
[ ] You have played the piano.
[ ] You have family from Asia.
[x] You laugh sometimes covering your mouth.
[ ] Most people think you're Chinese.
[ ] You call hurricanes typhoons.
[ ] You go to Baulko.
Total: 2

German
[x] You like bread.
[x] You think German Chocolate is good.
[x] You speak some German.
[x] You know what Schnitzel is.
[x] You hate it when stupid people call you a Nazi.
[x] You went to Pre-school.
[x] You're over 5'2
Total: 7

Canadian
[ ] You like/play/played hockey.
[ ] You love beer.
[x] You say eh.
[ ] You know what poutine is.
[x] You speak some french.
[x] You love Tim Horton's.
[ ] At one point you lived in a farm house.
[ ] You watch/watched degrassi.
Total: 3

American
[ ] You hate foreigners.
[ ] You hate non-Christians.
[ ] You're lazy.
[ ] You are not cultured.
[ ] You hate abortion.
[ ] But love the death penalty.
[ ] You don't read.
[x] You shop at Wal-mart.
[x] You think this survey is rather biased.
Total: 2

Total:
British - 6
Australian - 3
Italian - 3
Spanish - 2
Russian - 2
Irish - 4
African American - 0
Asian - 2
German - 7
Canadian - 3
American - 2

One Bridge Sucessfully Burned

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:19:56 GMT

I am once again a free woman.
Technically Josh broke up with me, like, 3 days ago, but I didn't actually acknowledge the fact until today. Mmhmm, I am oblivious.

I can't say this development is unexpected, though I thought we'd last until after Christmas break at least. Ah well. I just hope I don't suddenly lost a good 60% of my friends at CSU over this. Most of them live in Josh's dorm.

Anyway, that's all the news I have at this point other than my most recent binge at B&N. I picked up the most recent A. Lee Martinez book and a the graphic novel adaptation of Metal Gear Solid 3.

2008 meme

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:34:20 GMT

Stolen in general, not from anyone in particular.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
COLLEGE. Goodness. Once el roomie got booted, living alone can also be added to the list.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t honestly remember if I made any resolutions last year. I’m guessing that I didn’t, however, because I’m terrible at that sort of thing. Chances are I won’t be making any for next year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Ermm…I think my high school advisor did. Oh, and I think Schendel did as well.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I don’t think so. There’s some author I really like who just died (or I just found out about it), but I can’t remember who to save my life.

5. What countries did you visit?
Bonaire, China, and Japan. Good times.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Academic motivation? My GPA is still pretty good, but my classes are only going to get harder.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Whatever day we arrived in China and we were all staring at the Beijing airport like “holy shit, guys, we’re in CHINA.”

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Honestly, getting A’s and B’s in all my classes. I was expecting to fail my Philosophy class on account of the crappiest-research-paper-ever.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Making friends in college on my own. I pretty much just made friends with all of Josh’s friends.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really. I got sick at the beginning of school for a while, but that’s expected.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
That’s hard to say, but the award might have to go to my acquisition (finally!) of the 1^st season of New Who.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Rin’s, for FINALLY breaking up with Max.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
El roomie’s. Assault is not okay, guys.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Well, technically it’s all still my parent’s money (I’m such a leech…), but school and travel are the biggies.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Travelling. Japan is much more fun with people you know, and China was just amazing.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
“Separate Ways” by Journey. I blame AMV Hell.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, I guess. I’m definitely not sadder, anyway.
ii. thinner or fatter? About the same, I think.
iii. richer or poorer? Once again, about the same (as I said before, I’m a leech).

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Study. It would have cut down on that whole stress thing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating. I am never going to put off a costume until a week before the con ever again.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it at home, being slightly bored and baking scones.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Not exactly, though I did finally start actually dating Josh.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
In general, Doctor Who. My favorite show that I just started watching in 2008 is probably Top Gear.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Emily.

26. What was the best book you read?
Aargh…I read so many books, but probably “Zod Wallop.”

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
“Aquaman’s Lament” by Mark Aaron James

28. What did you want and get?
Lots of things…(oh, the internet), but most notably a bunch of anime.

29. What did you want and not get?
New sneakers, mostly because I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Oh, and a pony.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
“In Bruges”

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I just turned 19 this December. I haven’t had my actual birthday party yet, but on my birthday I just kind of sat around in Josh’s dorm room, played resident evil, and angsted about finals.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Pressing assault charges against Emily instead of just wimping out and sort of letting it slide.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
A tendency towards pseudo-grunge, augmented by periodic Threadless binges.

34. What kept you sane?
Sadly enough, Neopets. I started playing the games again as a way to block out my roommate, and then managed to get addicted again. Oh, Technobase helped as well.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Jude Law…

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Ermm, nothing really “stirred me up,” but I did actually pay attention to the election this year (and voted, even!).

37. Who did you miss?
Lassi (Kassi and Beth) and Sterling.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I’m torn between Christian, Craig, and Zach.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Chose your cohabitants wisely, if at all possible.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
“You lose your meter and your rhyme and you can never turn back time…”

Prezzies!

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:44:55 GMT

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas was good, on the whole.
I got woken up around 8 to go open presents (because Tom couldn't wait any longer).
I mostly got a bunch of little things, but a couple of the bigger items are worth noting.

1. SEWING MACHINE
Apparently mum finally got sick of me stealing her machine all the time and got me one of my own. I haven't taken it out of the box yet, but it's shiney.

2. Docking station for my laptop
Now I can just plug all of the peripherals that come with using my laptop as a desktop (namely the monitor, keyboard, and mouse) into one thing and then plug that into my laptop. It solves my USB port problem rather nicely. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should name it--if I do, it'll be called Elda. Oh wait, I did just name it. Whatevs.

I also got a Joann's gift card and $25 for iTunes. As soon as I get the player downloaded again I'll probably go on a music binge. HOWEVER, the first thing I'm going to buy if definitely Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Mum just reminded me today of how much I loved it and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to live without watching it again. XD

Christmas dinner went alright despite the awkwards, what with Heidi bringing along her new manfriend and all. Kwami (sp?) seems nice enough, definitely a massive step up from Ryan, but only time will tell.
I'm pretty exhausted now, though, since I planned and cooked pretty much the entire meal. Pounding the chicken flat for Chicken Paprika was pretty fun though, especially since I was using a mallet considerably larger than the average meat mallet.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to scarfing the leftover stuffed mushrooms tomorrow for breakfast or something. Mmmmm...mushrooms...

(also, I don't have a christmas icon, and that's a bit saddening. ah well)

good times

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:47:08 GMT

1. Party! 'nuff said
2. had lunch with Marla; and Beth, kristin, and marin all randomly showed up
3. part of my latest order from japan came in today, I'm hoping the rest comes tomorrow

Glee

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:19:29 GMT

Happy happy.
1. Josh is getting over his illness (puking is gross).
2. Did lots of baking.
3. Made plans with Marla tomorrow!

I hope you guys like scones, because that's what I made for the potluck. XD
They're chocolate and cranberry....mmmm....
I might pick up some apples when I'm out.

Marla got back from California a couple days ago, so I harrassed her via facebook and we're meeting for lunch at Gohan Time.
I believe the first topic of conversation will be the boyfriend she COMPLETELY failed to tell me about. Seriously, I found out from her father at a FLL tournament. Not cool.

bored nao

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:07:59 GMT

Day...what is this? Five?
1. this is the first time I've had almost complete silence in forever, except for the dogs. it's nice, but also a bit eerie.
2. took a shower in my parents' bathroom. Their shower is so nice!

Today was hella boring, otherwise. I spent most of it staring off into space, randomly surfing the net, or trying to guess what my christmas presents are by their size and shape. So far, I'm guessing that I'm getting at least three books (two paperbacks, one hardcover). The large box is still puzzling me, however.
I don't normally do that sort of thing but, hell, I'm bored.

At least tomorrow should be somewhat more interesting, since Josh is using me as a convenient excuse to avoid interacting with his family.

oops

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:11:32 GMT

I forgot to post yesterday!

Whoops, anyway....

Day IV (belated):
1. got all my crap moved home
2. finally opened my birthday presents from my parents
3. ate real food!

I got a really awesome fantasy art book! It's shiney, I love it. Though, I couldn't help thinking of Tegan when I flipped to one of the first illustrations, since it's from the cover of Sabriel.

I also got my very own gps! I'll (hopefully) never be lost again!

Actual conversation with my father:
Dad- "And it even has the 'help me' feature."
Elena- "Is that anything like the 'oh god, oh god, where the heck am I?!' feature?"
Dad- "I dunno, but it probably has that too."

friday friday friday (almost)

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:29:41 GMT

thefridayfive

1. What decade did you attend/are you attending high school or college?
2000's

2. What clothing fashion from that time are you glad/do you wish went out of style?
Ugg boots and sweat pants. They are fugly. Very very fugly.

3. Do you still listen to the music from your high school/college years on a regular basis?
Pretty much. There's some stuff I haven't listened to in a while, but my taste in music hasn't changed much since high school.

4. What hairstyle/hair color did/do you wear during high school/college?
Varying lengths of boring. It was red once, though.

5. What was/is "the cool thing to do" while in high school/college?
Drink? I dunno, I'm not one of the cool kids.

Free At Last

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:01:22 GMT

Day III:
1. FINALS ARE OVER
2. Mildly pathetic though it is that I still play neopets, I've found that making astute sounding economic observations is really quite entertaining.
3. I'm almost done cleaning so that I can move out for the holidays (I just have to vacuum and unplug everything).

Microeconomics final went pretty well.
PHILOSOPHY FINAL OF ULTIMATE DOOM went not so well. I don't think I failed outright, though, so I should be okay.

Today was really boring. Seriously.

btw

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:57:32 GMT

By the by, I got a 55/90 on my geo test, which is, err, a D. But that's WITHOUT the curve, so I should be fine. Apparently the average was somewhere in the 40's range.

So far, so good on the finals. *crosses fingers*

Most boring birthday ever.

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:54:21 GMT

There are two reasons that my 19th birthday has been slightly boring.
1. There is nothing I can do now that I couldn't do once I turned 18.
2. I managed to forget it was my birthday (again) right up until my mother called me at 11:20. It's sad, I know.

On the other hand, things that made me happy!
1. I doubled my collection of novelty animal mugs, thanks to josh's present.
2. It's also Zach's birthday, and he promised me dutch chocolate in return for my gift of hello panda cookies. Also, he gives good hugs.
3. Saw Smailes.

Today pretty much consisted of turning in paperwork, visiting rocky, buying mum's christmas present (socks, of all things), and then hanging out at Ingy playing Resident Evil 4. Surprisingly, I'm am doing considerably better than I thought I would, though I still have periods of asking either josh or craig "oh fuck, oh fuck, what do I DO?!"
Lucky for me, Ashlely makes a good meat shield.

Also, I'm apparenlty going to learn how to play Left 4 Dead and DotA over the break whether I like it or not. Should be interesting.

Blah...

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:36:50 GMT

Tagged by the Tegan.
1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail.
3. Tag 8 of your friends to do the same (do I have 8 friends? I don't think so)

Erste Tag:
-Got the paperwork for double-as-a-single next semester. Hellz yeah, I'm not living with a complete stranger ever again.
-Discovered that all the tea my parents/grandparents sent me in my "finals survival pack" is good. I like tea.

Woo, so, my birthday is tomorrow. At 11:25 am I will officially be 19.
Huzzah!
Shame my birthday is half-way through finals week, but whatever.

Speaking of finals, I think I pretty thoroughly fucked up my geo final. I think even Craig may have failed, and he studied like a madman. Heh, oh well. I'm pretty sure I still passed the class anyway, which is really all I need. It's just a core requirement.

I still have microeconomics and philosophy to go, back-to-back on thursday. That'll be fun, let me tell you. At least my micro final isn't cumulative.

Let's see...tomorrow I'm going with Rinny to harrass people at Rocky (and by "people" I mean JCC and Smailes). Should be a good time.

And...that's pretty much it for now.

Where did it go?

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:53:02 GMT

I got a haircut today!

Like the dork I am, I got it cut like the wig I got for Victoria, though it's a bit weird because my hair is curly.
My head feels really light again. I've forgotten what it's like to have short hair.

SNOW! I love snow, even if everyone in Fort Collins forgets how to drive. I expect I won't be going out much for the next couple of days.

Watched the new X-Files movie, finally. The guy at blockbuster said it was pretty bad, but I liked it. Then again, I'm a rabid x-files fan, so it sort of makes sense. The movie was pretty much an extra long episode, so I can see why anyone who wasn't a fan would think it was a pretty shitty movie.

...I seem to be bleeding money lately. After an extended (and somewhat joking) conversation with Joshy, I bought a hugging pillow off of J-list. I wanted the Space Yoko/Yomako one, but they sold out, so I bought the Nia pillow instead. XD
Josh bought the Yoko pillow.
I feel kind of like a freak. But in a good way.

I can't believe I did that.

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:21:10 GMT

So...anime day at the mall was interesting. Josh, Albert and I went together and were all like "is anyone actually going to show up? I fee like such a moron doing this." Turns out there were a bunch of people there, which was probably a good thing. We got a ton of weird looks from the more normal patrons of the mall (and from some people when we were driving).

I'll spare you the details of the cosplay contest, but I won 3rd (resulting in an Inu Yasha wall scroll I'll probably never hang). It wasn't exactly a challenge, but I suspect I did as well as I did because Zoe (aka AJ, this kid I used to go to school with) was one of the judges. He adores me and I don't know why.

In other awkardness, my mother showed up just before the contest started. Tom thought I had gotten my hair cut (because of my wig). XD

I NEED to build a Harkonnen for next year, dang it.

And...yeah.

Happy Halloween!

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:01:03 GMT

I have a busy day ahead of wandering around with the fencing club dressed as a pirate, yelling loud and obscene things, and the Ramnime party...and picking up my mother's contact lenses.

Should be a good day. XD

NaNo...what?

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:28:39 GMT

It's official. I've resolved to commit literary suicide.

How do I plan on doing this, you may ask? NaNoWriMo, of course!

50,000 words in 30 days doesn't sound too hard...right?

NEWS~!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:54:03 GMT

ELENA HAS NO ROOMMATE NOW!!!!!1
THIS CALLS FOR CAPSLOCK AND CELEBRATION!

(ahem....yes, my roommate moved out yesterday when I wasn't around, so I was rather surprised to come back and find her gone. Also, I put in my request for the paperwork required to live alone for at least the rest of semester, which is pretty exciting.)

caffeine and techno make life bearable

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:56:14 GMT

Life is so weird for me right now. Allow me to give you a recap of my last couple days.

So I have this venus fly trap--or rather HAD--named Audrey after the Audrey II in "The Little Shop of Horrors." Anyway, I put it on the heater so that it could get decent sunlight. As far as I was concerned it was fine, even though I'm terrible with plants and Audrey was dying a slow and painful death. But I liked that plant, dammit, and yesterday el roomie knocked it off the heater while opening the blinds. Here is a basic reconstruction of the conversation following the incident. My thoughts at the moment are indicated by *these*.

Me (annoyed): Did you knock over my plant?
Emily: You don't have to sound so angry. I just knocked it over.
Me (getting up, still annoyed): Let me do that. *are you retarded? of course I'm angry.*
Emily: I'm not an invalid, I can do it.
Me (really annoyed now): It's my bloody plant. *do you even fucking know what "invalid" means?*
Emily: Fine. It was a dead piece of shit anyway.

She mauled Audrey pretty badly, so much so that I ended up having to throw it away. And then she had the nerve to insult my freaking plant. I had to leave a lot of the dirt too. I think it's dry now, though, so I can borrow the vaccum cleaner tomorrow and clean it up properly.

Not long after that I fled to Josh's room to hide and watch more than two hours of Black Lagoon. I didn't leave until about midnight when I decided that Puni Puni Poemi was rotting my brain and causing it to ooze out of my ears.

Today was the last day of my Business 100 class, which means that from now until the end of the semester I don't have class on mondays until 2pm, which is cool. I even got to leave early because I had to walk down past the Hilton on Center to go to my Geology Lab. Half the class didn't even bother showing up, which was fine. It was pretty easy, on the whole, though I'm not looking forward to having to do the calculations later. They look annoying.
I decided to skip Microeconomics in favor of finally going to get the second round of my HPV vaccine and going home to do laundry. I watched a lot of House and NCIS, which was fun, and ate dinner with Mum since I hadn't actually seen her in a while. I also showed her the "Hey Sarah Palin" video. Haha...random mother/daughter bonding moment. It was kind of awkward.

Meh, anyway, came back to the dorms only to find that I couldn't open up our fucking door because Emily and Courtney had blocked the gap underneath it with towels. Emily got all offended that I was annoyed about the towels and told me that I was "a big girl" and I could "use my words." I want to choke that whore with her own pipe, I swear to god. Things got even better when I was putting my laundry away and apparently ignored Courtney.

Emily: You can talk to my friend.
Me: I'm sorry, I wasn't actually paying attention.

Then she tried to have some sort of heart-to-heart by telling me that she didn't like living with tension. My reply was that I wasn't comfortable talking to her until she spoken with Joe (the assistant residence director). This is only partially true. I really don't want to talk to her until she's had her conduct hearing, but it's because I'm afraid I'd tear her head off and feed it to her (how badly my hands were shaking after the conversation ended is a fairly good indication of how pissed off I was, I was in the middle on an adrenaline rush). Even better, she was SUPPOSED to meet with Joe on monday, but because she never checks her mail she didn't get the letter. She's being really bitchy about it too, making excuses and shit. We're pretty much just completely ignoring the existence of the other...sort of. I'm still making fun of her behind her back.
I present to you a direct quote from not too long ago: "I'll probably smoke a bowl...I dunno, I'm eating cookies...I hid them from myself, but I found them. They're animal cookies."

I mean, really...she has no brain.

ANYWAY.

My schedule for the rest of this week is kinda crazy.

Thursday:
-go to rocky to buy tickets for musical
-hide from cropp and schlup
-ramnime

Friday:
-meet Evan for lunch to discuss map
-math stuff (I should be done this week)

Saturday:
- 9AM Geology field trip to Lory state park
-get back, take a shower, drive down to Westminister to visit Christian
-drag Christian back to FoCo after dinner
-INSANITY

Sunday:
-breakfast somewhere? it all depends on whether or not Christian spent the night
-drive christian back to westminister
-be back to the dorms in time to get josh's keys so I can make sure he wakes up in time for the trainwreck
-TRAINWRECK INSANITY
-sleep? I have no class monday morning...

Wow, that's longer than I expected it to be.
Ah well.

Oh, and I've recently become addicted to an online radio station called "technobase," which is basically a constantly streaming channel of german techno. It's HIGHLY entertaining, partially for the music, but mostly because the DJ's crack me up.
It's also very good for tuning out Emily, since it can cover up just about anything if I wear headphones.

A sorry, sordid tale.

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:05:10 GMT

Geh, so I'm meeting with some guy named Joe (I forget his title, but he's pretty high up in the hierarchy of Braiden Hall) on Friday so that I can give my side of the story regarding the events of Sunday morning before they have a talk with Emily. I'm sort of wondering if I should bring the notes I prepared regarding all the prior incidents...or if that'll look too much like I'm setting myself up for some sort of unofficial court.

I dunno. They seem to be stressing, above all else, in the emails that I'm not in any sort of trouble. I'm not sure if I actually believe them or not (I have a very low opinion of bureaucracy, despite my aspirations to become part of it) since it may just be some sort of ploy to get me to talk openly, but I remain optimistic. I'll just have to choose my words carefully.

Eh, it's late and I'm tired. And I don't even know what I'm saying anymore.

The melodrama is killing me...

Rewind

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:55:00 GMT

I really don't know why it seemed like a good idea to procrastinate ALL of my philosophy reading (all 250+ pages of it) until the day and a half before the test...but I did.
Oddly, I don't think I did too poorly. Certainly I would have appreciated more questions on the Stoics and Epicureans and less crap about Aristotle, but my Prof's bias is clear. I can't win~

I also need to come up with a paper topic, and soon. Though, if I can convince him that I'm legitimately writing about quantum physics I'll probably get a deadline extension...

I got my hands on "Black Lagoon: the Second Barrage" the other day, and all I have to say about the first two episodes is "what the fuck, man? what the fuck?" It's amazing, there's no getting around that, but when you run out of fingers to tally the fetishes that show up on...well, that's a bit weird.
My short Korean friend (Albert) and I are also forcing Josh to watch "Samurai 7." To keep ourselves entertained we're keeping track of all the particularly awkward (usually sexual) moments. My personal favorite is the "sex hair" scene. XD

1. How am I Feeling today?:
"PRETTY GREEN ONIONS" - DJ SHARPNEL
(repetative? crazy?)

2. Will I get far in life?:
"Radio" - Smash Mouth
(should I go into radio?)

3. How do my friends see me?:
"Tsumasaki" - Ore Ska Band

4. Where will I get married?:
"Gravity" - Yoko Kanno

5. What is the story of my life?:
"The Jessica Numbers" - The New Pornographers

6. What was Highschool Like?:
"Jump N' Shout" - Basement Jaxx

7. How can i get ahead in life?:
"Polygraph, Right Now" - Spill Canvas
(drama, much?)

8. What is the best thing about me?:
"Advice" - The Pillows
(but...none of this is good.... I'm honest?)

9. How is today going to be?:
"Killer Bees" - Scooter
(I'm thinking bad...)

10. What is in store for me this weekend?:
"birdhouse in your soul" - songs to wear pants to
(jazzy and more than a little weird, sounds like a good time)

11. What song describes my parents?:
"Running" - No Doubt

12. To Describe my Grandparents?:
"Information Travels Faster" - Death Cab For Cutie

13. How is my life going?:
"Sail Away" - David Gray

14. What song will they play at my funeral?:
"Feel the Circle" - Yoko Kanno
(the circle of life?)

15. How does the world see me?:
"October" - Evanescence
(err, depressed?)

16. Will I have a happy life?:
"Another Know It All" - Chevelle
(once again, I'm thinking no)

17. What do my freinds REALLY think of me?:
"This is the End" - She Wants Revenge

18. Do People secreatly lust after me?:
"Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle" - Cake
(they would if I were a rockstar?)

19. How can i make myself happy?:
"Once a Dream" - Kamelot

20. What should I do with my life?:
"Shaken" - Shiny Toy Guns

21. Will I ever have children?:
"Brand New Colony" - The Postal Service

22. What is some good advice for me?:
"High On Your Own Supply" - Apollo 440

23. How will i be rememberd?:
"Push On" - The Call

24. What is my signature dance song?:
"1985" - Bowling For Soup

25. What do I think my current theme song is?:
"Girl Afraid" - The Smiths
(eh, what?)

26. What does everyone else think my theme song is?:
"Drink to Obliteration" - Bouninjou
(good times, man...)

27. What sort of guys/girls do you like?
"DARE" - Gorillaz

Words!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:30:01 GMT

Stole a meme because I was bored.

Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"This theory is more than a play of the imagination."
-The Evolution of Physics (Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld)

I kind of wish it had been one of my philosophy books that was closest at hand, but this one is fairly entertaining as well.

Oh god oh god...

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:32:10 GMT

So...ah, I saw Halley at Target today and vented about my current roommate troubles.

Anyway, angsty post in angsty. I sort of wrote this up "police statement style," so there's none of my usual torrential outpouring of profanity. I'm supposed to be the sane one, after all.
As you're reading, bear in mind that this was originally intended to be read by my RA and possibly her superiors, which is why it sounds a bit weird in places. Also, it's heavily edited for length (it's too long for LJ in it's original format), so it gets a bit rambling at times.

I am, by nature, a rather judgmental and vindictive person. But I promised myself when school started that I would make a serious effort to be kinder, more understanding, and more tolerant of the personalities and issues of my fellow cohabitants (my roommate in particular).

For a while (the first week or so) things went decently. Emily and I laid out our (supposedly) worst habits for each other in hopes of coming to an understanding early on, and we got along fine. I Even tried using my local knowledge of Fort Collins to make her feel more at home by giving Emily a tour of the down town area, showing her where the closest grocery store is, and even taking her out to dinner one night when she was feeling homesick and complaining about the dorm food. Things were looking up, in my opinion. I’d managed to get a roommate that I thought I could see eye to eye with.

Apparently it was not to be. The following is a list of the major incidents of the last month and a half in chronological order to the best of my abilities. Many of the events have run together in my mind, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten still more. I also cannot fully guarantee my own lack of bias, but I try to be fair.

Not long after the start of class Emily started smoking. I am fully aware of CSU’s policy regarding drug use, but in the interests of keeping the atmosphere in our room friendly, I merely extracted a promise that Emily would always smoke out the window and left it at that. To be perfectly honest, it didn’t really bother me all that much.

After a while I realized that Emily had started smoking in our room proper, but as I had a cold and couldn’t really smell anything it still failed to particularly bother me. So I blew it off, acquiring yet another promise from Emily that she would always stay in her half of the room while smoking and considered myself lucky to have an understanding roommate.

One weekend when I still had my cold, I went home to do laundry, and brought a box of Dayquil and Nyquil with me when I came back to the room. Emily asked to see them, noting that one could get high on the active ingredient. I was not particularly surprised that she knew this, considering her past. I took some of my Nyquil that night, replacing the box in my desk drawer, and went to bed.

The next night, when I opened my desk drawer to retrieve my cold medicine, it was gone. Further searching of the room turned up nothing, as did casually asking Emily if she had seen it lying around somewhere. She went of the defensive, replying in a terribly offended tone of voice that, no, she hadn’t seen it and “I don’t go through your stuff, you know that.” I agreed with her that the room had probably just eaten it and it would turn up soon, despite my suspicion that she had stolen it, and said nothing more on the subject.

Emily has very loud phone conversations (when she has a phone). I realize this is largely unavoidable with cell phones, but her tone is still exceptionally high. At any rate, I awoke in the middle of the night one night to Emily’s voice asking “did you get my message?” At first I thought she was speaking to me, so I started to say “no, I didn’t,” but realized when she continued talking that I was not in fact a participant in the conversation. Emily continued on to say “I’ll meet you half-way,” which I took to mean she was going to meet this guy, Ben, somewhere on campus and then go to his house.

About an hour later I woke up thirsty, and was in the process of reaching over to grab my water bottle when a sort of rhythmic thumping/springy noise caught my attention and I noticed what could only have been Emily underneath her bed spread, moving up and down in time with the noise. I realize now that I should have done something about the situation when it was still occurring—I live there too, after all, and should have a say in the activities which transpire there—but at the time all I could think to do was go back to sleep and pretend that nothing had happened. That was precisely what I did.

When I awoke the next morning, Ben was still there. Once he left, Emily apologized profusely. I was more than a little angry and disgusted, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and once again made her promise that it would never happen again. Thus far, at least, this promise has not been broken.

One of Emily’s friends from Telluride, Courtney, is, as you undoubtedly already know, on drug probation for Marijuana. Apparently, given my continued benevolence and talent for ignoring Emily’s drug use, the two of them (and ultimately one of Courtney’s friends) decided that our room was the ideal place to get high. I, for my part, did my best to pretend that nothing was happening by keeping my back to them and speaking only when spoken to.

I was still trying my best to keep the relationship between Emily and I friendly, and forcing her and her stoner “friends” to find someplace else to smoke did not seem like the best way to achieve that particular end.

However, suppressing my own impulses to rip Emily a new one and give her some leeway (she kept saying that she was going to party really hard on the weekend and then get her life together. She said this over and over and over again, and never once has she actually done it) was starting to grate on my nerves—not only her persistent drug use, but also the fact that she’s incredibly mess and lazy, and has a tendency to take my food without asking (often denying it later).

I thought I’d hit something of a ceiling in my tolerance when I came home to Emily, Courtney, and a third girl smoking and drinking. Eventually I left to go for a (very) late night walk when Emily logged onto an adult chat site and tried to get me to go on camera. She was gone when I returned (presumably to visit one of the many men she had recently become friendly with).

I began formulating a plan to begin gently suggesting to Emily that perhaps it would be a good idea to find someplace else to smoke (I had recently gotten over my cold and could actually smell things again) since the dryer sheets and febreeze that Courtney uses to cover up the smell of pot were starting to give me sinus issues.

I never actually got around to using it as planned.

Despite all of this, I never actually reached my tipping point until Thursday, October 2^nd.
(As a preface, the refrigerator, microwave, and electric kettle are all mine, purchased over the summer when I still thought that Emily was bringing a television. She later decided not to, but I still gave my permission for her to use all of them, since doing otherwise would have been distinctly unkind of me.)

For some time previous to the specified date, Emily had been using the microwave inappropriately (not using a plate when heating messy foods, and not clearing any extra time on the clock when she was done with it), eventually culminating in some refried beans oozing out of a frozen burrito and pooling on the turntable in the microwave. Instead of simply cleaning up her own mess right after it happened, which would have been the respectful thing to do, she left it there and eventually the bean baked on in a solid gray mass.

I admit that I let the beans sit there for a few days in hopes that she’d come around and clean it herself. Eventually that Thursday I realized that my hopes had been in vain and all of the passive aggression that had been building up over the past few weeks finally took over. I cleaned the entire interior of the microwave myself and, just as I was leaving for my last class of the day, asked her if she knew what a plate was for. She said something in a violent tone as I left, but I don’t recall what it was.

Emily was still up when I returned around 10:30 that night, and promptly began yelling at me about my neurotic episode earlier. I did my best to remain calm (though I’m not entirely certain I managed it as well as I’d hoped), saying that I shouldn’t have needed to ask her to clean up her own mess because she ought to have done it herself right after she made it. Emily went on the defensive and threatened, among other things, to hit me. I was not particularly worried. Just prior to going to bed, I told her that, as a trade-off for keeping my OCD tendencies in check I never wanted her to get high in the room ever again. She freaked out again, saying that I was insulting her intelligence, and I tried to fall asleep to music while ignoring her yelling. When I finally turned off my music, I heard the sound of her lighter and could smell fresh pot smoke, so I know that my proposed trade was quite thoroughly ignored.

Friday morning I rose fairly early to go home and do my laundry. I got back just after noon, and I believe that we may have had some sort of conversation about our quarrel the night before. Assuming I have my timeline correct, I explained my sinus issues to her and she seemed to understand. Very shortly after that I left to go visit friends and did not return until late the next morning.

On Friday, after doing my laundry, I went to the grocery store, and among my purchases was a package of cracker and cheese sandwiches. I put the package in my top drawer, where I keep much of my food, unopened. Early today I decided that, since I was hungry, it would be a good idea to finally open up the package. It was already open and some of the crackers were missing

Emily was in the shower at the time, and when she came out I asked if she had opened the package. Once again, she went on the defensive and said “no.” When I went over to the bathroom area to throw away the wrapper from my crackers she said something to the effect of “I’ve been nothing but nice to you, so your attitude really sucks.”

Once again, I realize now that I ought to have been more sensitive about the situation, but I was angry. I didn’t reply for a few moments, but when I did I said “I’m not the one who thinks it’s okay to have sex with someone while my roommate in sleeping.”

Emily freaked out, tore open the door, and started yelling about how I should go tell the RA about the situation. I stood up to look at the door, possibly said something about how I wasn’t going to do that, and the next thing I know Emily is punching me, several times in the chest and once on the right side of my lower jaw.

I did not, to the best of my knowledge, retaliate in any way, though I wanted to. The punch to my jaw was the last one before she retreated. I turned to pack up my stuff, intending to leave until my mind had cleared.

As I was leaving Emily was repeating over and over again that “it was wrong to hit you, I’m sorry, can you accept my apology?” or something very close to that.

At some point in this mess I said something about how I was giving Emily the benefit of the doubt and just wanted her to get her life together. She hotly denied ever saying any such thing, despite telling one of her friends precisely that on the phone the day previous.

Before you ask, I'm well aware of my own monumental stupidity regarding this matter.

NDK 08

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:18:41 GMT

I'm afraid that I don't really have much to say, unless you want a detailed list of all of the really rather awkward things that happened to me over the weekend. I met some cool people, but dear god Crazy James is kind of a creeper...

Anyway, I finally got my pictures online. Enjoy~!
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/morro_lan/NDK%2008/

And how do I know this?

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:37:34 GMT

In case you ever wanted to know how many people can fit on a dorm room bed, the answer is 6.